"It's a fun process," said 15-year-old Justin Wolcott of Wilbraham, "I wasn't very interested in the wood shop. I wanted to try something new and this is something new."

Machine technology and high-precision manufacturing aren't just new to Wolcott and his class, but new to the education center on Brush hill Road in West Springfield and the lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative that runs it.

The manufacturing program opened only about one month ago, said principal director Don Jarvis.

So far, 12 sophomores have taken an exploratory course in machine technology and four have signed on to participate through their high-school years. A dozen freshmen are taking a similar exploratory course now.

The freshman are making dice and key chains, said instructor Ron Messier.

The goal, Jarvis said, is to gradually build the manufacturing program up to 48 students in three to four years as more cohorts of freshmen and sophomores join.

The current crop of sophomores got a visit Thursday from state Sen. Eric Lesser, D-Longmeadow, who was there to take a tour and to announce that $200,000 in state funding will allow the school to buy Haas machining equipment so students will be able to take upper level training on the more complex machines next year.

"We talk constantly about how do we keep Western Massachusetts competitive and how do we grow our economy," Lesser said. "We here consistently over and over again from our employers. There is a common theme, and that's that one of the single biggest limitations to our growth is access to skilled employees. And this is ground zero of that training."

The Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative has already spent $350,000 from its member school districts outfitting the new center, said collaborative executive director Andrew M. Churchill. The collaborative expects to spend $200,000 more, on top of the state grant announced Thursday by Lesser, to continue to equip itself with the latest technology needed to make students workplace ready.

That $200,000 will likely come in the form of donations from industry, Churchill said.

The member districts are: Agawam, East Longmeadow, Hampden-Wilbraham Regional, Longmeadow, Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional and West Springfield. Although not members, Easthampton and South Hadley also send a number of students to the school.

It's a half day program with students coming for either the morning or afternoon and spending the remainder of their day taking academic classes at their home high schools, Javis said.

As of October, the Career and Technical Education Center ha a total of 475 students in grades nine through 12 with a dozen vocational shops beside manufacturing technology.

The Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative has been planning to add manufacturing for years, meeting with members school districts and with employers like Smith & Wesson. Before opening the program, students at member school districts would have had to go to vocational schools like Westfield Technical Academy, Smith Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School in Northampton or Chicopee Comprehensive High School.

"There is a great deal of interest in our member districts and in our schools, said Bill Fonseca, chairman of the Collaborative board a member of the East Longmeadow School Committee.

Churchill said the program is designed to prepare students for a modern workplace and also get them ready for college level courses leading to degrees in engineering and other technical fields.

"That's our job, Churchill said. "To prepare students for the world. The y can walk out of here to a middle-class job if they want to."

There are 214 manufacturing companies whose principal place of business is located in school districts served by the Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative. Many face the need to hire more skilled workers to expand or to replace a graying workforce of baby boomers readying to retire, Churchill said.